How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
And then the lighting of the lamps. (13)
After walking home on a cold, rainy night, we notice that the inhabitants of the city are lighting their lamps. This signals nighttime, when the poem becomes most revealing. It also signals the end of the first stanza. Eliot often uses time change to signal movement from one part of the poem to the next.
Quote #2
With the other masquerades
That time resumes, (19-20)
Masquerade? Is Eliot saying that time is just an illusion, like a mask? Yeah, pretty much. We might think that time changes things, that the light in the morning signals a new day, but Eliot says that some things never change, regardless of how much time has passed.
Quote #3
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms. (21-23)
Everyone does the same things (raises their shades) at the same time (in the morning). This is just another thing that doesn't change; in 100 years, people will still (presumably) be letting in light when they wake up.